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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (554150)	3/20/2004 9:07:58 PM
From: Kenneth E. Phillipps	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769667

Former counterterror adviser slams White House, Rumsfeld WASHINGTON (AP) — Richard Clarke, the former White House counterterrorism coordinator, accuses the Bush administration of failing to recognize the al-Qaeda threat before the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and then manipulating America into war with Iraq with dangerous consequences. Former Bush counterterror adviser Richard Clarke says Bush was stuck on Cold War issues. By Paul Sakuma, AP file He accuses Bush of doing "a terrible job on the war against terrorism." Clarke, who is expected to testify Tuesday before a federal panel reviewing the attacks, writes in a new book going on sale Monday that Bush and his Cabinet were preoccupied during the early months of his presidency with some of the same Cold War issues that had faced his father's administration. "It was as though they were preserved in amber from when they left office eight years earlier," Clarke told CBS for an interview Sunday on its 60 Minutes program. CBS' corporate parent, Viacom Inc., owns Simon & Schuster, publisher for Clarke's book, Against All Enemies. Clarke acknowledges that, "there's a lot of blame to go around, and I probably deserve some blame, too." He said he wrote to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice on Jan. 24, 2001, asking "urgently" for a Cabinet-level meeting "to deal with the impending al-Qaeda attack." Months later, in April, Clarke met with deputy cabinet secretaries, and the conversation turned to Iraq. "I'm sure I'll be criticized for lots of things, and I'm sure they'll launch their dogs on me," Clarke said. "But frankly I find it outrageous that the president is running for re-election on the grounds that he's done such great things about terrorism. He ignored it. He ignored terrorism for months, when maybe we could have done something." The Associated Press first reported in June 2002 that Bush's national security leadership met formally nearly 100 times in the months prior to the Sept. 11 attacks yet terrorism was the topic during only two of those sessions. The last of those two meetings occurred Sept. 4 as the security council put finishing touches on a proposed national security policy review for the president. That review was finished Sept. 10 and was awaiting Bush's approval when the first plane struck the World Trade Center. Almost immediately after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Clarke said the president asked him directly to find whether Iraq was involved in the suicide hijackings. "Now he never said, 'Make it up.' But the entire conversation left me in absolutely no doubt that George Bush wanted me to come back with a report that said, 'Iraq did this,'" said Clarke, who told the president that U.S. intelligence agencies had never found a connection between Iraq and al-Qaeda. "He came back at me and said, 'Iraq! Saddam! Find out if there's a connection,' and in a very intimidating way," Clarke said. CBS said it asked Stephen Hadley, Rice's deputy on the national security council, about the incident, and Hadley said: "We cannot find evidence that this conversation between Mr. Clarke and the president ever occurred." CBS responded to Hadley that it found two people it did not identify who recounted the incident independently, and one of them witnessed the conversation. "I stand on what I said," Hadley told CBS, "but the point I think we're missing in this is, of course the president wanted to know if there was any evidence linking Iraq to 9-11." Clarke also harshly criticizes Bush over his decision to invade Iraq, saying it helped brew a new wave of anti-American sentiment among supporters of Osama bin Laden. "Bin Laden had been saying for years, 'America wants to invade an Arab country and occupy it, an oil-rich Arab country.' This is part of his propaganda," Clarke said. "So what did we do after 9/11? We invade ... and occupy an oil-rich Arab country, which was doing nothing to threaten us." Clarke retired early in 2003 after 30 years in government service. He was among the longest-serving White House staffers, transferred in from the State Department in 1992 to deal with threats from terrorism and narcotics. Clarke previously led the government's secretive Counterterrorism and Security Group, made up of senior officials from the FBI, CIA, Justice Department and armed services, who met several times each week to discuss foreign threats. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (554150)	3/20/2004 9:08:19 PM
From: PROLIFE	Respond to of 769667

John 'Flapjack' Kerry The "mystery" of which foreign leaders are "endorsing" John Kerry continues to elude the public (as well as Kerry himself). For the record Kerry is big in socialist countries. The two foreign leaders that have "gone public" endorsing him are Kim Jong-Il of North Korea, as well as the newly elected terrorist-appeasing socialist Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero of Spain. But "Flapjack" Kerry has gotten a tad testy over the issue. The fact that he made up the assertion aside, he finds it annoying that people keep hounding him about it. He even told a voter attending his town hall meeting in Pennsylvania, that it was "none of his (the voter's) business as to who the 'foreign leaders' were that he had met with." Talk about hospitality. This remarkable act of good will was followed by much finger pointing and irritated lecturing of said voter – also excellent goodwill campaign techniques. Kerry is bothered by the reality he has created. That is, he cooks on one side until the heat gets too hot then he flips. But it seems that when John F. Kerry has his "Flapjack" attributes highlighted, he also has a slight temper. Unfortunately for him, the early and all too easy primary did not help him prepare for the true test of a presidential campaign. And it's starting to show. When a liberal lacks substance, he must manipulate facts or imagine them. He must also ask people to believe him in spite of the facts. Telling off voters for asking you to substantiate a claim that you know you made up is infuriating – thus, why "Flapjack" found himself ridiculing the poor man. But the week didn't get any easier for Kerry as it went on. On Wednesday, Kerry trying to defend himself against the charge that he had voted against supplying body armor for the troops in Iraq said, "I actually did vote for the 87 billion dollars before I voted against it." OK, maybe he believes Americans are lemmings. Maybe we lack the "grace" or "sophistication" of the brie-stuffing, merlot-chugging French, but even the les incompetents, know that sounds ridiculous. As Vice President Cheney pointed out on Wednesday, "Kerry voted against body armor for troops when he opposed the $87 billion emergency supplemental bill to pay for operations and reconstruction in Iraq that was passed in October last year." But speaking to an audience after wrapping up the Democratic nomination with his win in Illinois, Kerry said, "I can tell you right now: In a Kerry administration, no one will be getting body armor as a gift from a loved one – it will come from the Armed Forces of the United States of America. We will supply our troops with everything they need." John "Flapjack" Kerry also took differing tones and positions on Iraq – all in one 24-hour span. "Flapjack" – the appeaser – said: We are still bogged down in Iraq and the administration stubbornly holds to failed policies ... What we have seen is a steady loss of lives and mounting cost in dollars with no end in sight. The lesson here is fundamental: At times, conflict comes, and the decision must be made. For a president, the decision may be lonely, but that does not mean that America should go it alone. Hours later, following the deadly bombing of 12 Iraqis in Baghdad, "Flapjack" – the "fighter" – released a written statement: The United States must send a strong message that these cowardly acts will only strengthen our resolve ... We must make it clear to all that now is the time to come together to fight our common enemies. A day in the life of John "Flapjack" Kerry is certainly difficult for his campaign spokespersons to keep track of ... "Let's see ... note to campaign staff ... have Howard Dean link Bush to Spain bombings at our press conference." Hours later ... "Bad idea ... release statement saying 'it's not our position' ..." Trying to make cohesive sense of what John Kerry's message intends is like reading a book beginning with page one and alternating every other page with the end of the book and working your way toward the middle. I guess you could figure it all out – but the effort it would take would be far more trouble than its worth. Posted: March 19, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2004 WorldNetDaily.com

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (554150)	3/20/2004 9:23:14 PM
From: PROLIFE	Respond to of 769667

Another Brahmin eruption Mar. 19, 2004 11:30 AM WE'LL HAVE TO WAIT FOR HILLARY AND '08 Phil Boas I was trying to recall the exact moment I lost interest in the 2004 presidential race. It was March 7, the day The New York Times published Maureen Dowd's gushing paean to John Kerry. Dowd gloried in the "vast palette of cultural preferences" that paint the Kerry persona. Why, he not only reads Keats and Shelley and T.S. Eliot, he writes his own verse on the "barren desolation of the desert." That of course is when he's not in "his Fellini stage" or gracefully plucking Segovia on his classical guitar. Of course, sometimes Kerry slips into manly moments of Hemingway, but Dowd reassures us he's no "simple brush-clearing, ESPN watching fellow" - an oh-so-cunning clever to the guy in the White House. I've never found Dowd particularly enlightening, but I did on March 7. She opened my eyes to the utter irrelevance of this election. Not much unites Americans in these polarized days of talk radio and cable screaming heads, but we do share one thing in common and have since the birth of our Republic. We hate snobs. Americans aren't going to elect John Kerry and his "vast palette of cultural preferences," and we're certainly not going to elect a man who electrifies Maureen Dowd. So when I read today that Kerry cussed out his secret service agent for making him fall on the ski slopes, I just found it hard to work up any interest. One more Brahmin eruption. Yawn. This thing is over. It was two weeks ago. azcentral.com

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (554150)	3/20/2004 9:23:57 PM
From: D.Austin	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

You are trying to make some comparison where the stupid idiots routinely fire guns in the air to celebrate anything from a soccer game to birthdays...what statistic is out there about gunshot deaths could be used to determine a murder rate???